Trump Tells Netanyahu To Be More Responsible With Lebanon, Suggests Syria Fights Hezbollah

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the G7 summit in France that Benjamin Netanyahu must be "more responsible" with respect to Lebanon, after Israel launched an attack on a claimed Hezbollah command centre in southern Beirut during the final hours of negotiations between the US and Iran.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue Israel’s occupations of Lebanese and Syrian territory, despite the announcement of a ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran that links to those hostilities”

Al Jazeera

Trump said, "Without the United States, there would be no Israel," and added, "I've had a great relationship with Bibi [Mr Netanyahu], but now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon."

Al Jazeera

The ABC report says Iran is insisting Israel must withdraw its forces from Lebanon under the terms of its deal with the US, while Israel has continued to bomb what it says are Hezbollah targets.

In the same context, Trump raised the prospect of asking Syria’s rebel leader-turned-president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to step in and combat Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying, "If Israel can't do the job without killing everyone else, it'll do the job, Syria will do the job."

At the G7 sidelines in Evian, France, Trump said, "If Israel can’t do the job without killing everyone else, he’ll do the job, Syria will do the job," as the US-Iran memorandum of understanding was set to be formally signed in Geneva on Friday.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Trump accused Israel of taking too long to oust Hezbollah from Lebanon, and he also said, "Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long, and too many people are being killed, and you do not have to knock down an apartment house every time you are looking for someone."

Anadolu Ajansı

The Guardian similarly quoted Trump saying, "Israel’s fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed," and added that he told reporters, "you don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody."

In the same dispute over the Lebanon front, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that "The end of the war also includes the end of occupation," warning that any continued occupation of Lebanese territories would be considered a violation of the memorandum of understanding.

As Netanyahu vowed to continue Israel’s occupations of Lebanese and Syrian territory, the Al Jazeera report said he told reporters, "We will stay in the Lebanon security buffer zone for as long as necessary," despite the US-Iran ceasefire-linked announcement.

“In short: US President Donald Trump says Benjamin Netanyahu must be "more responsible" in Lebanon and suggests asking Syria to fight Hezbollah "if Israel can't do the job without killing everyone else"”

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Al Jazeera also said Netanyahu’s conflict with Hezbollah has killed more than 3,000 people, and it quoted his claim that "Iran will never have nuclear weapons, not today and not tomorrow" while he said Israel had "beheaded the leaders of the terror regime" and "crushed the terror factories."

The Les Echos live updates tied the Lebanon question to the broader framework, saying Tehran considers Israel’s plan to maintain occupation a "violation" of the agreement’s protocol, while also reporting that the Iranian army threatened a "severe response" after Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

In a separate thread about the wider war, the Jerusalem Post’s account linked Trump’s frustration with Israel’s long conflicts to his earlier experience with Gaza, noting that he "also got tired of the war in Gaza" and that by May the IDF had only retaken areas it had already held before in Gaza.